Totally Superheroine! (film)
Totally Superheroine! is a 2001 American animated action superhero comedy film produced by Stomthan Media and Victor Animation Studios for Victor Hugo Pictures and was the final film for Victor Animation Studios. The film was directed by David Mamet from a screenplay by Anthony Hopkins and a story by Eddie Guzelian and Amy Keating Rogers, and stars the voices of Isla Fisher, Zooey Deschanel, Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Poehler, Owen Wilson and Steve Carell. It follows the three teenage girls from Ridgecrest who become superheroine. Marnet envisioned the story in 1994, which was based on his dream of himself finding a Superhero Tower that "sucked him into Superhero Place". He then began developing the film after production had finished on Wassai and Ceuk (1997) and wrote the original story with Thalvon-Semersay to pitch it to Victor Hugo Pictures, with Hopkins on writing the screenplay. Following Hopkins's first draft, Eddie Guzellan, Amy Keating Rogers, and Tom Willett were brought in to reconstruct the third act and add additional material, while the latter was selected to co-direct. The Victor Hugo Pictures animation team drew inspiration for Totally Superheroine!'s urban design from major cities including New York City, Los Angeles, and California. Hans Zimmer composed the film's score. Totally Superheroine! premiered at the Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles on May 11, 2001, and was released in the United States on June 8, 2001. It received fox acclaim from critics and was a box office success, grossing $74.6 million worldwide on its $84 million budget, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2001. Totally Superheroine! won the 2001 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Zooey Deschanel, for his voice performance as Angel, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Dreamworks Shrek. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with three sequels — Totally Superheroine! 2, Totally Superheroine! 1 1/2, and Totally Superheroine! 3 — Two Spin-Off — Nandy franchise and Blender Animation Tina — and a television series. Plot The movie begins with Chris DeBlois is getting ready for his concert. His hair is styled with a black tuft, but when his cheek mole blinks mysteriously, he suddenly has a blank stare, and walks out of the venue. Meanwhile, the band is on stage and everyone is shocked to find that Chris is not there. As a light beam shines on Chris, he smiles and says "Cool" and is lifted up in the air. Marie, Jenny, and Angel starting their new lives in Ridgecrest, California. Marie is stunned to find that the bookstore does not sell books. Angel is rejected by a Haute couture shoe store when she inquires about pair of Yves Mont Blanc boots. Jenny is overwhelmed by a high-tech gym. As each of them were about to cross paths outside of a Kebabs restaurant, nearby superhero (including Gerry Mewis) purposely cause the giant Kebab roll above the entrance to break off and chase after them. The three girls are able to avoid it while saving the life of a cat (when Jenny later adopts and names "Meowy" Later in Season 6) and destroy the Kebab roll before it causes any damage. After that, the girls introduce themselves to each other and this starts their friendship when they see each other at Ridgecrest High. They meet the principal Critch, who is not impressed by Marie, thinking she is a grade grubber. They meet the super-popular girl Nandy, who seems friendly at first, but soon tricks them into getting sprayed by a Soda vending machine. Angel presents new friends a change of clothes, but they find themselves sucked into a locker and down a chute to one of the offices of WHOOP. They meet Gerry and a WHOOP Superhero Kad. Jerry reveals that WHOOP had been observing the three of them secretly since childhood, showing videos of each girl, and picking them as prime recruits for the organization. However, the girls are quick to reject the invite. However, they later are conscripted into training after each having traumatic experiences that relate to WHOOP. They go through the rigorous 48 hour training which involves martial arts, surveillance, bomb defusion, and taking down a giant robot. In the WHOOP Submarine, Gerry briefs the girls on their first mission: People around town have been disappearing, including rock star Chris DeBlois and animal psychologist Beppy Tigerman. As Gerry introduces the Gadgets to the girls, Angel provides some suggestions as to the design of their Supersuit, and he agrees to go with the color scheme they have used ever since. When they sneak into Tigerman's office, they find camera footage that shows that he left and then came back with a new look. Later, they follow a crowd of people to a store where they are seeking makeovers using the Cooulizer. They report their findings to Gerry and Kad, and must rush back to school by WHOOP Jet. On the way, they are attacked by another person in a fighter jet, and are able to fend him off. At school, they evade Madame Critch as they sneak back for their trigonometry test. The next day, the girls discover that the Ridge High students have all been Cooulized. Jerry, who is undercover as a cafeteria cook, tells them they all underwent the treatment and that they should track one of the students to see who is behind it. They agree to tail Mandy, but then Madame Critch arrives and catches Marie for vandalizing the school (Marie had used a Laser Lipstick to cut an escape hole in the wall, but left a strand of her red hair at the scene). That night, they sneak into Nandy's room but she rolls out of bed and starts sleepwalking. As they follow her, they find that the Cooulized people are converging to a mountain crater where they are beamed aboard a spaceship. The girls follow and disguise themselves as Cooulized people as they are transported to a strange space station that looks more like a luxury community. They meet the mastermind behind the entire affair, Coou, a runway model who quickly lost fame in five minutes when he had a wardrobe malfunction during his debut. When Jenny makes an outburst, the Superheroine are captured by Coou's strongest henchman, Juri. He then relates his entire plan, to gather his Cooulized people to live in his Cootopia, and to destroy the Earth. He uses the Cooulizer in reverse to "un-Cooulize" the girls, giving them horrible makeovers: Marie's skin turns green, Angel grows a large dark brown unibrow, and Jenny gets massive acne. He puts the girls in container rockets to be sent back to Earth. But just as he leaves, Kad arrives, but instead of helping the girls, he aims to stop Coou himself and take all the credit, so that he can regain his "favorite agent" status with Gerry. Kad loses his fight with Coou and is strapped to a missile bound for Earth. Jenny frees herself and the other girls just in time. After undo the effects of the Un-Cooulizer, they reach Kad but are unable to stop his missile from launching and heading to Earth. The girls are able to destroy the navigation system for the missile but now it is heading straight for the space station. Gerry arrives just in time in his Spaceplane. They rescue Kad, and then return to the station where they break Coou's signal beacon in his staff, and evacuate the people before the missile explodes and destroys the station in a firework finale. Using their Jetpack Backpacks they chase Coou down. During the Chase, Jenny tells Marie it is time to let Coou go, but the Coou overhears this. Enraged, He chases the group to a construction site. Angel attempts to distract the Fabu so she can dynamite it, but the Coou notices and attacks her. Marie fights it off with an excavator and Jenny is given the dynamite. While Angel distracts the Coou, Marie and Jenny climb to the top of a crane, and Marie throws the dynamite into the Floor, causing the Spaceship to explode. The trio then see Beppy Tigerman before she ascends into the afterlife. Angel apologizes to Beppy Tigerman for his losses, but Beppy Tigerman thanks the teenage girls for freeing him from being Cool for 2 months. After the mission, Gerry congratulates the girls. He says that Juri and Kad have been placed in the WHOOP Prison and that everyone who was rescued from Coou's space station have been destroyed and their memories of being Cooulized erased. Jenny gets a call from Tigerman who invites her to talk about animals and her cat. Angel then gets a call from Chris who heard she is a big fan of his poetry and wants to serenade her over dinner. Marie does not get such a treat, but when she returns to school to face her detention, she is surprised to find the school has a new principal who is not aware of any of her shenanigans, and actually likes Marie and her academic abilities. She wonders where Critch is (she was transferred to a different school in Antarctica where she has to teach in an Penguins). The girls get even with Nandy by having her unleash a foam grenade. As they are called to another mission, the girls are Scratch to bring up personal appointments, but soon find themselves running from a WHOOP jet as it prepares to suck them aboard. But the girls are ready for their mission as they change into their Superheroine suit and exclaim their friendship as the movie ends. In the post-credits scene, Coou is frozen and is peed by the turtle. Voice cast : Main article: List of Totally Superheroine! characters * Isla Fisher as Marie, She is the Leader of the WHOOP. She is a smart, loyal and sweet person who, just like her two best friends, can become highly jealous. She has great leadership skills and is highly respected by her friends. She think up the plans and diversions so that the girls can defeat the villains. Although she is fairly serious during her missions, She wear a blue super suit on her mission. * Zooey Deschanel as Angel, She is the member of the WHOOP. She is the most girly and flirtatious. She is known to have had an abundance of boyfriends and will do anything to get a guy. She wear a orange super suit on her mission. * Cameron Diaz as Jenny, She is the second member of the WHOOP. She is an odd mixture between a tomboy and a girly girl, she is the most athletic and fitness-minded superheroine of the team. She wear a green super suit on her mission. * Jack Black as Gerry Lewis, He is the founder and chief administrator of WHOOP (pronounced like "woohp"), the World Human Of Organization Protection, Gerry is a middle-aged British gentleman who briefs the girls on their missions and provides their various superpower, most of which are in the form of women's accessories such as echolocation, energy constructs, wallcrawling, enhanced hearing, energy armor, and are very mission-specific as if he knew everything beforehand. * Owen Wilson as Kad, He is the Gerry Lewis's assistant. When Marie, Angel, and Jenny were forcibly recruited into WHOOP, Kad realized that he was losing his "favorite superhero" status with Gerry. Kad decided to sabotage their mission and defeat Coou himself. * Jennifer Lopez as Critch, She is the school principal of Beverly Hills High. Her first impression of Marie was not favorable, sensing that when Marie talked about what she has been doing academically (doing term papers, extra reading, etc.), that she was trying to be a "grade grubber". She then tells the girls that they will not receive any favorable treatment despite being new students, and that she has her eyes on them, especially Marie. * Renée Zellweger as Mandy, She is shown to be stylish, charismatic, popular and pretty but is also bratty, materialistic, snobbish, egocentric, greedy, arrogant, cruel, naughty, abusive, and downright maleficent. * Rick Gomez as Chris DeBlois, He is a rock star. He also thanks the spies by calling Angel and asking her out on a date and before that, He is the one of getting Cooulizer. * Steve Carell as Coou, He was the main villain, He was a worst male model who was ranked #1 on the "Top 10 Worst Models of All Time" TV special, on account of the fact that his career as a male model only lasted for 4 minutes (literally). He recruited Juri, a France citizen, after Coou helped him with his spacewalk when Juri was still a cosmonaut. To return the favor, Juri built the Cooulizer machines and the Cooutopia spaceship for Coou. * Hank Azaria as Juri, He was Coou's right hand man. He was the one who built Coou's Fabulizer machines and the Cooutopia spaceship for him. * Scarlett Johansson as Hayden, is one of Nandy's lackeys/best friends * Bonnie Hunt as Doitlin, She is second of Nandy's lackeys/best friends, along with Hayden. * Nicole Kidman as Beppy Tigerman, She is a Pet Carer, She is the one of getting Cooulizer, along with Chris DeBlois. Additional voices * Paul Eiding * Tress MacNeille * Colleen Villard * Pamela Adlon * Pat Musick * Cathy Cavadini * Alan Tudyk * Susan Blu * Tara Strong * Rodger Bumpass * Jess Harnell * Jeff Fischer * Jeff Bennett * Alastair Duncan * Candi Milo * Gregg Berger * Philip Proctor * Kevin Michael Richardson * Phil Morris * Clancy Brown * Bradley Pierce * Lacey Chabert * Teresa Ganzel * Dee Bradley Baker Production Development David Mamet came up with the concept for Totally Superheroine! in 1994 during the production of Bassai and Aeuk, in which Mamet directed. He envisioned a story where the three girls gets sucked into Higher Tower Offices that leads them to become a superheroine. Mamet's original inspiration was from a dream he had of himself finding a Citigroup Center Building that "sucked him into Higher Tower offices". Mamet also took inspiration from the 1989 Warner Bros. film Batman, where the Gotham City superhero Batman is really millionaire philanthropist Bruce Wayne, who turned to crimefighting to defeat The Joker, who'd been mob torpedo Jack Napier before he was horribly disfigured in a vat of acid. Mamet began work on the film with Eddie Guzelian in 1996, shortly after The Secret World of Easter Bunny finished production. By late 1997, Marmet had drafted a treatment with Guzelian that bore some resemblance to the final film. Mamet and Guzelian pitched the story to Victor Hugo Pictures through its feature animation division with some initial artwork in March that year. He and his story team left with some suggestions in hand and returned to pitch a refined version of the story in May. The film was originally developed under the title of Super Teenage Girls, but was changed in order to distance it from the 1979 movie with the same name. In addition to Super Teenage Girls, other titles that had also been considered included Marie, OMG, I'm am Superheroine, Super Girls, Mrs. Freedom and her friends and Fearless Marie, among others. In July 1997, the New York Times reported that Marmet was working on a then-untitled project that would eventually become Totally Superheroine!, albeit nothing else about the film was known at the time. In August 1998, Victor Hugo Pictures revealed the film's title to be Totally Superheroine!, then planned for a late 2000 release. In addition, it would be animated with traditional hand-drawn animation that had been done with FAS's two prior films. In May 1999, production of the film officially began, and Pixote Hunt, joined to co-direct the film with Marmet. The film was produced concurrently with The Pagemaster, another animated film that animated with traditional hand-drawn animation with live-action at the beginning and end of the movie, which was released seven years before Totally Superheroine!. Guzelian defended the film, saying that "any similarities are mere coincidence. We've been open with the Warner Bros. Feature Animation people so we don't step on each other's toes." Writing Tom Willett, who had just finished work on A Goofy Movie, was attracted to write the script for Totally Superheroine!, and began developing a treatment in June 1996. In its earliest stages, the story was very different from the final film, in which the character of Marie and Angel (known at this stage as Jennifer and Eva) was being a superheroine, where he must stop Unhanted (a parody of DC Supervillian Enchantress) from taking over the world and kidnapping a "Red Superhero" named Miguel (who later became Kad), the love interest of Jennifer. Marie's Another partner and friends, Jenny, had not yet been added. Through various drafts, Jennifer's occupation went back-and-forth from being a teenager and her Superpower, until his final incarnation as a teenage Student. More coming soon! Casting During the time, when Victor Hugo Pictures was looking for a younger actor for the voice role of Marie, Ashley Johnson was considered for the character. He screen tested for the role and was interested, but when David Marmet was unable to make contact with those three, he took it as a "no". In addition to Johnson, Tara Strong who subsequently accepted the role in DC Comics and Warner Bros. Animation The New Batman Adventures, was also considered for the role of Marie. Marmet took the role to Isla Fisher, who was appearing in the Australia nighttime soap opera Home and Away, and he accepted. For the role of Angel, Pamela Adlon, Leslie Mann, Tress MacNeille and Fran Drescher were considered, but Zooey Deschanel won the role for her comedy. In April 2000, it was announced Fisher and Deschanel were cast, along with other cast members including Cameron Diaz, Jack Black, Owen Wilson, Renée Zellweger, Scarlett Johansson, Bonnie Hunt and Steve Carell. Initially, Marmet wanted Eugene Levy for the voice of Chris DeBlois. Levy was approached about voicing the character. However, in 1999, before production on the animation began, Hamill left the film due to being busy on other projects. Instead, he was replaced by Rick Gomez. Animation Totally Superheroine! ''was animated in-house at Bardel Entertainment headquarters at Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Music : ''Main article: Totally Superheroine! (film)/Soundtrack The film's original score was composed by Hans Zimmer, It also marks the first Victor Hugo Pictures animated film to be scored by Hans Zimmer. The soundtrack album was released on June 5, 2001, by Varèse Sarabande. More coming soon! Release : Main article: Totally Superheroine! (film)/Release dates Totally Spies! ''premiered at the Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles on May 11, 2001, and opened in theaters on June 8, 2001, in the United States and Canada. The film was rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for "action violence and mild language". According to Marmet, he wanted the film, along with some other Victor Hugo Pictures animated films, to be more targeted towards viewers of ages 6-12+, similar to animated superhero series such as Inhumanoids and Spider-Woman, In the United Kingdom, it received a PG rating by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) for "Rated PG for thematic elements, crude pranks, language and some mild peril." (added on the post-2007 re-issues). In Australia, the film was rated PG by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). Marketing Upon its release, McDonalds had a promotional tie-in with seven toys including Angel, Marie, Jenny, Nandy, Gerry Cewis, Kad and Coou with a paid Happy Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin Robbins also promoted the film for its new Marie, Angel and Jenny's Superpowers Totally Superheroine! ice cream that consists of Sundae, sprinkles, hot fudge, gummy worms and whipped cream. Trailers * The film's first teaser trailer was released in July 2000, and was later shown in theaters with other films such as [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Men_(film) ''X-Men], Pokémon: The Movie 2000, Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, The Original Kings of Comedy, Bring It On, Whipped,'' and Crab.'' * Another teaser trailer was released in October 2000, and was later released with [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon:_The_Movie Digimon: The Movie], Meet the Parents, Charlie's Angels, Little Nicky, Bounce, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, 102 Dalmatians, Dungeons & Dragons, Dude, Where's My Car?, The Emperor's New Groove, Galaxy Fight, ''and Recess: School's Out.'' * The first theatrical trailer was released in February 2001, and was shown with Monkeybone, See Spot Run, ''and Say It Isn't So. * The second theatrical trailer was released in March 2001, and was later shown before ''Spy Kids, Pokémon 3: The Movie, Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, Town & Country, Shrek, and The Animal. * There were a few television spots for the film; the first one was released in April 2001, the second one was released in May 2001, and the third one was released in June 2001. Video game : Main article: Totally Superheroine! (video game) A video game based on the film was released on June 4, 2001 on Game Boy Color, PlayStation, Microsoft Windows, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, and Nintendo GameCube, as well as on Macintosh. Home media Totally Superheroine! was released on DVD and VHS on October 23, 2001. Both releases included a 5-minute short film titled Marie in the House, which takes place after the events of the film and before the events of the TV series. The film was the best-selling DVD and VHS in its initial week of release, selling over 500,000 copies and making over $24.6 million. It was later released on Blu-ray in North America on September 8, 2009, and on Blu-ray 3D on May 9, 2017. A second Blu-ray release from Victor Hugo Pictures for the film was released on May 24, 2011, as a part of Victor's Victor Hugo Pictures 75th Anniversary releases, It also a part of the Totally Superheroine! 10th Anniversary Collection ''releases, A 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray version was released on May 8, 2018 and the DVD and Blu-Ray Set Totally Superheroine! 4-film Collection version was released in August 21, 2018. Reception Box office ''Totally Superheroine! opened on June 8, 2001, in the United States and Canada. It got to earn $173,644,854 during its opening weekend, placing first in its box office during that weekend and setting new records such as earning the highest-opening weekend for a non-sequel animated feature, and the highest opening for an original non-Disney film. The film also earned the highest-grossing domestic debut for Victor Hugo Pictures Animation (later overtaken by its sequel in 2005). By the end of its theatrical run, Totally Superheroine! grossed a total of $855,742,732 worldwide, making it 2000's highest-grossing Victor Hugo Pictures film and the year’s sixth highest-grossing film. It is also the second highest-grossing 2001 animated film behind Monsters, Inc. ($115 million). Critical reception Totally Superheroine! ''received widespread critical acclaim, becoming a cult hit among critics upon release. On the aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 183 reviews, with an average rating of 9.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Having enough colorful superheroine animation, brilliant humor and action-packed scenes to compete with the likes of Disney, ''Totally Superheroine! perfectly lives up to be a hit on its own." On Metacritic, it received a score of 89 out of 100, based on 73 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film three out of four stars, saying "In its last Victor Animation Studios animated feature, Victor Hugo Pictures and Stomthon Production offers audiences Totally Superheroine! the whole family could enjoy the delightful addition to the company's other classics with non-stop humor." Richard Corliss of Time Magazine praised Zooey's performance as Angel, stating that "it gets even funnier for his comic relief career that brings the well-known self for his life." Leonard Klady of Variety liked the concept, also stating "As directed by David Marmet, Totally Superheroine! has a very engaging concept for a movie taking place you to go fight the crime." Some critics have likened Totally Superheroine! to live-action superhero films such as The Shadow and Judge Dredd; Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News described the film as "How Stella Got Her Groove Back meets Wonder Woman". Lou Lumenick of the New York Post gave the film three out of four stars, saying that "Totally Superheroine! seems to duplicate the usual animation look of Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, but was made using cel animation and has truly amazing action sequences, charm, wit, and humor with a host of quirky characters such as Marie, Angel and Jenny." Stephen Holden of The New York Times summed up his review stating that "Totally Superheroine! is not only a great kids movie, but it is an enthusiastic movie with perfect moments that live up to its plot as well as other Victor Hugo Pictures animated hits like The Book Guardians and Giselle." Some critics, however, criticized some unexpected product placements of superhero movie references such as Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park, The Spider's Web and Superman. Liam Lacey of The Globe and Mail described Totally Superheroine! as a "95-minute feature-length of Three Animated Girls version of Judge Dredd", while Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post wrote that it was little more than an exercise on Hero at Large to children. Bill Goodykoontz of The Arizona Republic stated, "While not as bad as say, Knock on Wood, Victor Hugo Pictures's Totally Superheroine! sometimes has a overuse of The Spider Returns, but tries hard enough to appeal fans who may be puzzled by the movie's visual disconnect." Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune considered Sam's quote "For now on, I'm to be like a Superman, Girls Style?" as a clever reference to the 1978-1987 Superman movies. Accolades Sequels : Main article: Totally Superheroine! (franchise) Totally Spies! ''was followed by two sequels: ''Totally Superheroine! 2 (2005) and Totally Superheroine! 11⁄2 (2010). While the first sequel received similar acclaim from critics, the third film, however, got some mixed reviews but was still a box office hit. A fourth installment, titled Totally Superheroine! 3, was released on November 24, 2017. A fifth film, titled Totally Superheroine! 4, is set for release on November 20, 2021. Spin-offs Comics : Main article: Totally Superheroine! (Comics) TV Series : Main article: Totally Superheroine! (TV Series) Holiday special : Main article: Totally Superheroine!: A Superheroine Christmas Transcipts Main to see the main transcipt of the film, click here. Trailers To see the transcript for the trailers of the film, click here. Category:Films Category:Victor Hugo Pictures films Category:Totally Superheroine! Category:Victor Hugo Pictures animated films Category:Victor Hugo Pictures Animation animated films Category:2001 Category:2000s Category:PG-Rated films Category:Victor Hugo Pictures animated features canon Category:Traditionally animted films